Onyx
by Dr. Amelia Donna
Summary: Mark's got a present to give Kathryn and her family.


"So, Ky Ky," Chakotay said, "you ready to go see Uncle Mark?"

"No mama?"

"Not this time. Uncle Mark wanted to talk about a present for mama. But you can't tell mama. Think you can do that?"

"Only there's no 'shrooms for lunch."

"No mushrooms, I promise."

"Okay."

"That's my girl."

The door to the house opened wide. "Chakotay! I'm glad you could come," Carla said, she hugged him and scooped Kaya out of his arms.

"Aunt Carla!"

"Kevin's in the back room with some new toys to show you, let's go see him." She gestured for Chakotay to come in. "Mark's in the study, you can go right in."

Mark looked up from his book, "You're here, great! I've been dying to talk to you about this."

"Well, I've been dying to find out what this present is you want to give Kathryn."

"Well, first let me say, that you're free to say no, especially with the twins coming, it might be a bit much to deal with. But one of Molly's pups just had a litter about six weeks ago. They're lab mixes, but they've all found homes with the snap of a finger. Except for one, I asked the owners to hold onto him until I could talk to you."

Chakotay rubbed at his ear, "I'm not sure. You're right, it might be a bit much."

"Right, but I would like to take you meet him before you decide for sure. Here's a picture of him."

Mark held photograph of the puppy up to Chakotay. The puppy was solid black, with hints of Irish Setter red in his fur. He was adorable, and Chakotay smiled.

"That sounds great."

"We can go now if you like. Carla won't mind watching Kaya, and Kevin certainly won't mind having her around. Luke and Dana already given me the okay to drop by today."

"What are we waiting for?"

Chakotay sat on a patch of grass in Luke and Dana Crosby's backyard. Six little furballs crawled all over him, licking him, and yipping in delight. Each puppy had a different color collar on. The puppy Mark had set aside for Chakotay wore a purple collar.

Dana laughed, "Maybe we should take those five inside so Chakotay can get know this little guy one-on-one."

"That might be a good idea," Mark chuckled.

Luke and Dana scooped up the five other puppies and took them to their mother.

With his brothers and sisters gone, the lone puppy walked over to Chakotay and rather unceremoniously plopped down in his lap. He wasted no time going belly up for tummy rub, and as Chakotay rubbed the puppy's tummy, the puppy began falling asleep. Chakotay knew then that little guy was going to home with him in couple of weeks. Having the little guy in his lap falling asleep to a tummy rub had reminded him of when Kaya was a baby and still waking up in the middle of the night.

Often times after a feeding or diaper change, all it took to get her back to sleep was lying her on his lap and rubbing her back. There was even a picture of it that Kathryn had taken and framed. It sat on her desk at HQ, and a copy also sat on his.

"I'll take him," Chakotay said, "how much?"

"Ah, ah, ah," Mark said, "he's my present to you guys. It's on me."

"Oh, Mark, I couldn't possibly let you-" Chakotay began.

Mark shook his head, "It's already done. Carla and I talked it over. We were going to take him ourselves if you decided not to."

"Thanks, I don't know what to say, except what are we gonna name this little fella? We still haven't quite got the names figured out for the twins."

"No problem, Kevin already suggested Onyx," Luke commented.

"Onyx, fitting, I like it. Maybe I should ask Kevin for some baby name suggestions."

"What do you have so far?" Dana asked.

"We've definitely decided on Shannon Nicole. But we can't decide on a middle name for Kole. Nothing seems to flow quite right."

"Hmm, that is a toughy," Dana answered, "maybe Sebastian?"

"That's not bad," Chakotay said while gently handing the sleeping puppy over to her, "I'll see what Kathryn thinks. Thanks."

"No problem," she smiled.

Luke shook Chakotay's hand, "Nice to meet you. Onyx will be ready to go home in two weeks."

"Sounds good, that's right about when the baby shower will be," Chakotay told them.

"We'll see you then."

TWO WEEKS LATER

With the room full of women from Voyager, Kaya sat in Samanta Wildman's lap looking for her parents. Neither of them were there. Not even Aunts Phoebe, Carla, and B'Elanna. Grandma was there though, and she happened to have a small cup of chocolate ice cream just for Kaya.

"Here you go, Sweetie," Gretchen said, setting it in front of her.

Kaya smiled a big toothy smile and went to take a big spoonful, but stopped suddenly. Her smile gone, she looked her grandma in the eye. "You sure chocokate? Not coffee?"

Gretchen laughed and stuck her pinky in the ice cream and sampled it. "Definitely chocolate."

Kaya smiled and dug in.

A couple minutes later saw Gretchen and Samantha wiping Kaya's face clean. Just in time, too, because just then Phoebe, Carla, and B'Elanna entered the room with a very surprised Kathryn in tow.

"Mama!" Kaya squealed, and jumped off Sam's lap and over to her while Kathryn playfully chided the three other women.

The baby shower proceeded with games of Guess the Baby Picture, Diaper Derby, and Feed the Baby among others.

They sat down in the corner to begin opening presents, when they were nearly done B'Elanna spoke up, "There is one last present, the boys should be here in about ten minutes to deliver it. No pun intended."

True to her word, the boys, consisting of Chakotay, Tom, Mark, and Kevin, showed up exactly ten minutes later.

Chakotay walked over to his wife and kissed her and handed her small rectangular box. "One of my wife's favorite gemstones is onyx. So this present is just for her."

She opened the box to reveal a necklace with a teardrop shaped onyx pendant. She gasped, and pulled it out of the box. Out of the corner of her now blurry eyes, she could see Naomi snapping a picture. Chakotay place another kiss on her, and taking the necklace, put it around her neck.

There was quite a bit of clapping at this.

Tom spoke up, "That's not actually the last present though."

Kathryn looked to Chakotay, and laughed while she wiped at her cheeks, "There's more?"

He nodded, "I really gotta thank Mark for this one, too. This one's really for the whole family." He went over to Mark who was holding a bundle that most had assumed was a doll Kaya had accidentally left at the Johnson house. He took the bundle and made his way back over to Kathryn.

"Honey, I know you love onyx, but I think you'll love this Onyx much more." He removed what little bit of blanket was draped over the puppy's head.

Kathryn gasped and reach for him, "You're right!"

The crowd cooed over the puppy while the boys began loading up the presents to take home.

Ten minutes later it was almost time to go home.

"Before the guests of honor head out," Tom began, "being the resident 21st century buff, I thought it would be fun to do something called a gender reveal. Most of you here don't know their genders. And since we're all scientists in one way or another, I wanted to do something scientific. Thank God for my wife, though, she managed to find something scientific that I would never have thought of that also incorporates something the Admiral loves most."

Kathryn raised an eyebrow.

Mark and B'Elanna hefted two clear bowls of water onto a table. In front of each bowl was a small chalkboard reading, "Baby A," and "Baby B."

"I also have it on good authority that the Admiral and Captain have finally settled on names," Tom added, "so maybe they could tell us when we're done." He winked at Kathryn and she rolled her eyes.

"B'Elanna," she began, "what could you have possibly come up with?"

"Well, the 21st century enjoyed something called Bath Bombs, or Bath Fizzes, and we all know how much you love your baths."

Everyone laughed.

B'Elanna continued, "I was able replicate a couple of small of white ones with inner cores that are either pink or blue. Once the outer layer is gone the inner core will continue fizzing and also turn the water the same color."

She handed one to both Chakotay and Kathryn. They went over the bowls, and set the bath bombs in the water. Within a minute Chakotay's bowl began turning pink, and Kathryn's blue.

"Who won the pool?!" a voice called out in the back of the crowd.

Kathryn jokingly wagged a finger at Tom.

"B'Elanna!" Tom knew his wife's voice, "are you trying to get me in trouble?"

"No," she said sweetly, stepping out with Miral in her arms.

He rolled his eyes, "The winner will be whoever guessed boy/girl, and gets the birth date correct or close, without going past. Anyway, I want to know what the names will be of the next Captain and Commander of Voyager."

"Shannon Nicole, and Kole Sebastian," Kathryn answered.

With everyone happy, Chakotay and Kathryn left with Kaya and Onyx.

Kaya had been delighted with the puppy all the way home, but after a long day, quickly fell asleep. Onyx, for his part, fell asleep, too.

Kathryn thanked her husband again with a kiss, "They need to grow up with dogs, anyway."

He smiled and hugged her as they too fell asleep.


End file.
